Glow stick

Light sticks, or glow sticks, are plastic tubes that contain glass vials of chemicals. When the plastic stick is bent, the glass vial breaks. This allows the chemicals inside the glass vial to come into contact with the chemicals inside the plastic part of the light stick. This starts a chemical... 

A discussion of luminescence is continued on the CD-ROM Web Module. Glow Sticks. Here, the PSSH is applied to glow slicks. First, a mechanism for the reactions and luminescence is developed. Next, mole balance equations are written on each species and coupled with rate law obtained using the PSSH and the resulting equations are solved and compared with experimental data. 

Photo courtesy of Goddard Space Right Center (NASA). See CD-ROM for color pictures of the ozone layer and (he glow sticks. 

Luminol does have applications beyond criminal investigations. It is the active ingredient in glow sticks, the plastic sticks that glow green when broken. Chemists use the compound in chromatography, a process by which the components of a mixture are separated from each other, as well as in studies of DNA patterns and other biochemical tests. 

Glow sticks glow because oxygen reacts with phosphorus at the surface of the material to form light-emitting molecules. 

What s inside of a zit Why does eating turkey make you sleepy How do glow sticks work What causes a hangover Chemistry (and this book ) holds answers to all of these questions. There are many wonderful stories about chemistry and the people behind these discoveries. Whether you have studied chemistry in high school or college, or even do chemistry for a living, we think you will enjoy this book. We certainly enjoyed writing it. 

Hydrogen peroxide is used with phenyl oxalate ester and an appropriate dye in glow sticks as an oxidizing agent. It reacts with the ester to form an unstable CO2 dimer, which excites the dye to an excited state the dye emits a photon (light) when it spontaneously relaxes back to the ground state. 

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